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Showing 1876 to 1900 of 2332 results

1876. A Message About Ammon

Jeremiah 49:1-6

Understanding Series

Tremper Longman III

Oracle against Ammon: The oracles against the foreign nations have been presented in a basically south-to-north direction. Just to the north of Moab lay Ammon, to the east of the Jordan River and extending to the desert on its eastern boundary. As with Moab (see above), the book of Genesis paints a dark picture of Ammon’s origins. Moab and Ammon were the children born to Lot after he slept with his daughters (Gen. 19:30–38). Israel under Moses came into contact with the Ammonites as ...

1877. A Message About Kedar and Hazor

Jeremiah 49:28-33

Understanding Series

Tremper Longman III

... again urges on the attackers. The fact that these groups are at ease indicates that they will be easy pickings. Being a nomadic group, they do not live in a city protected by walls (a nation that has neither gates nor bars). The attack will leave the region devastated and deserted. It will revert to wilderness as typified by the fact that the jackal will dwell there. See also Jeremiah 9:11; 10:33 as well as Psalm 44:19; Isaiah 34:13.

1878. How the Gold Has Lost Its Luster

Lamentations 4:1-22

One Volume

Tremper Longman III

... . Previously it has been said that the people struggled in the streets; now they are even denied peace in the streets. They were doomed. Verse 19 then envisions the people trying to escape their pursuing enemy by leaving the city and going over mountains and desert. But their flight is in vain because their enemies pursue them in these areas and catch them. 4:20 Resh. The pursuers even entrapped the LORD’s anointed, that is, the consecrated king. The importance of the office of king for the people is ...

1879. Remember, O Lord, What Has Happened to Us

Lamentations 5:1-22

One Volume

Tremper Longman III

... that people take their lives into their hands in order to get food (we get our bread at the risk of our lives). Perhaps the reference is to farming which takes place outside the city walls. Dangerous elements frequently lurked in the outlying regions (the desert). They threatened settled areas, but a strong city provided the security for people to work in its vicinity. With the destruction of the city government, all bets are off and these nomadic elements could prey on those who go out to work the fields ...

1880. Hosea's Wife and Children

Hosea 1:1-2:1

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... half of Hosea 1:9 should be read, “for you are not my people, and I will not be with you.” Yahweh, the God of the covenant, upon whom Israel’s very life depends, is declaring his covenant bond null and void, divorcing his wife Israel, deserting his beloved people. There can be no other outcome of that word of God than the death of Israel. Our secular age does not know or acknowledge the fact, but human beings cannot live unless God sustains their life. The word through Hosea and the subsequent fate ...

1881. Judgment Against Israel

Hosea 5:1-15

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... III (2 Kgs. 17:3). The NIV has added the words for help to verse 13d, but the reference is probably to Hoshea’s payment of tribute. Thus, both Judah and Ephraim seek to preserve their lives by political maneuver. But those who would save their lives and who desert their God will lose their lives, for the source of Israel’s downfall is not Assyria, but God, the Lord over Assyria and all nations (cf. Isa. 10:5–6), and it is in God alone that Ephraim and Judah can find any healing for their wounds. The ...

1882. Israel to Reap the Whirlwind

Hosea 8:1-14

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... protection and sustenance (cf. 7:10; Isa. 30:1–5; 31:1). Instead, Israel had sought out Assyria’s aid on its own initiative: For they is emphasized in the Hebrew. Verse 9c then changes the metaphor from that of a wild ass, wandering the desert alone, to that of a harlot who is so desperate for lovers that she herself seeks them out and pays them. (Jer. 2:23–25 implies the same combination of metaphors, although there the reference is to foreign gods, rather than to foreign political allies.) Despite ...

1883. Rend Your Heart

Joel 2:12-17

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... We will do everything that the LORD has said” (Exod. 19:8; 24:3, 7; cf. Deut. 5:27), the people constantly break their promise. But in the covenant relation God has promised to be Israel’s God and he does not go back on his word. Instead, when Israel deserts God and its relation with him lies in shambles, God promises a new covenant, in which he will write his words on the people’s heart so that they will remain faithful to him (Jer. 31:31–34). And it is that new covenant that Jesus Christ offers to ...

1884. Blessings for God's People

Joel 3:17-21

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... inhabitation of Judah in verse 20 connects with the thought of Edom, who took advantage of the fall and exile of Judah and Jerusalem to Babylon in 587 BC (cf. Obad.). In the reversal brought in the kingdom of God, Edom will become a desert without inhabitants, verse 19. Verses 18, 19, and 20 are all linked closely together. Moreover, Egypt and Edom are typically named in earlier prophetic oracles against the foreign nations (cf. Ezek. 30–32; Jer. 46; Isa. 34), and Joel is indicating that no prophetic ...

1885. Jonah's Anger at the Lord's Compassion

Jonah 4:1-11

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... ” (MT) the plant at dawn, just when the temperature begins to rise, so that the plant withers. The sun comes up, blazing forth with its heat on the head of Jonah, and at the same time, Yahweh “appoints” (MT) a sirocco, a hot east wind that blows in over the desert with its dust and that can parch a man to death. Jonah grows faint, as he was faint in the belly of the fish, 2:7 (MT). In short, Jonah is once again threatened with death. He himself has a taste of what the judgment of God means. Once more ...

1886. The Lord’s Anger Against Nineveh

Nahum 1:1-15

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... worship (especially the Psalms), and from the words of other prophets (e.g., Pss. 50:3; 83:13–14; Isa. 28:2; 29:6; Jer. 23:19). Alternatively, one can picture the effect of Yahweh’s coming by analogy with the way the intense heat of the desert wind in summer can wither crops and pasturage, even in the most fertile, flourishing, and beautiful areas of the country (v. 4b). The place names suggest territory both east and west of the Jordan (the Golan and the hills above Haifa), and also the far north. But ...

1887. Warnings and Exhortations for Jerusalem and Judah

Zephaniah 2:4-7, Zephaniah 2:8-11, Zephaniah 2:12, Zephaniah 2:13-15

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... length Zephaniah finally and naturally speaks about Assyria, to the north, still the superpower even if its power is waning, and also about its capital, Nineveh, upon which Nahum focuses. It will be turned into a desolate place, a dry wasteland like a desert. The subsequent description (v. 14) initially parallels that of Philistia (v. 6); the great city of Nineveh is turned into mere pasturage for sheep. But the prophet goes on to envisage it as simply the abode of wild creatures, like Babylon in Isaiah ...

1888. A Man With a Measuring Line

Zechariah 2:1-13

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

... as Zion, who live in the Daughter of Babylon. God calls them to “Flee from the land of the north,” from Babylon, where they had been deported by Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. 3:18; 16:15; 23:8; 31:8). The route north around the Arabian desert to the Euphrates River initially took the exiles north, out of the land of Israel, and so their route back from exile was, naturally, from the north country. These oracles combine elements appropriate to short-term and long-term summonses to return. The sixth-century ...

1889. The Woman in a Basket

Zechariah 5:5-11

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

... where they hatch their young. Their path takes them north through the land of Israel in the spring. Thus they appear annually to be traveling the route to Mesopotamia and the Persian capitals east of there. (In order to go around the Arabian Desert one went north from Jerusalem, and then followed the Euphrates toward the southeast.) These combination creatures used their wings and lifted up the basket between heaven and earth to carry it away. The two stork-winged women create a complex image, both positive ...

1890. Four Chariots

Zechariah 6:1-8

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

... describes the direction of their movement. There are four directions for the winds to blow, but from Jerusalem there are only two directions in which it is practical for chariots to travel in order to reach the rest of the world. To the east is the desert and to the west is the sea. One chariot, the one with the dappled horses, is going toward the south—the way to Egypt. The one with the black horses is going toward the north country. Judah’s conquerors came from the land of the north (Jer ...

1891. Judgment on Israel's Enemies

Zechariah 9:1-8

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

... wither. The loss of the king of Gaza would be essential preparation for incorporating Philistia into Judah again. The negated verb in the last sentence of verse 5 may indicate a lack of inhabitants (yshb, “sit, dwell”), as in the NIV, Ashkelon will be deserted, or a lack of royal rule (yshb, “sit on a throne, rule”). The latter interpretation is close to the previous sentence and makes more sense in the context of verses 5–7. Why should Ashkelon alone be emptied and excluded from the remnant in ...

1892. The Coming of Zion's King

Zechariah 9:9-13

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

... mapping these boundaries. They may be the outline of the Davidic-Solomonic empire, from the Gulf of Eilat to the Mediterranean (cf. the eastern and western sea in Zech. 14:8), and from the Euphrates River to the end of the land (haʾarets) in the southern desert. The same terms, “from sea to sea,” may also indicate the entire known earth, bounded by the seas. In the second line, the image of the cosmic river flowing out from the temple to the extremities of the world (haʾarets; Ezek. 47:1–12; Zech ...

1893. Two Shepherds

Zechariah 11:4-17

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

... finds the lost sheep, and tends to the injured, but the worthless shepherd will refuse to perform these duties. This anti-shepherd closely resembles the one who speaks in verse 9, but he proves to be even worse. God pronounces judgment on the worthless shepherd who deserts the flock in verse 17 by means of a woe oracle. A battle (a sword) or disease (withered) will render the shepherd’s working arm and aiming eye useless. Three other shepherds had been eliminated in one month (see also Hos. 8:4; 2 Kgs. 15 ...

1894. Judah Unfaithful

Malachi 2:10-16

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

... the husband could divorce. Deuteronomy 24:1–4 implies that it was a simple procedure within the household by which the man sent the woman away with a written document attesting his action. The bill of divorce protected the woman from charges of deserting her husband and freed her to marry someone else. Until she remarried, however, she was left homeless. The grounds for divorce are vague (“something indecent about her,” Deut. 24:1), and they were still a matter of dispute in Jesus’ day (Matt. 19 ...

1895. The Day of Judgment

Malachi 2:17--3:5

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

... prepare the way before me, in other words, to clear away obstacles from the road, as when forerunners prepare the way for a monarch to enjoy a smooth journey. Isaiah 40:3 uses the same expression, anticipating God’s return to Jerusalem: “In the desert prepare the way for the LORD.” The obstacles in Malachi’s use of the image are ritual and spiritual, the impurity of the priests and the temple services. Interpreters disagree about the identities of the Lord and the messenger of the covenant, in verse ...

1896. The Vision of Obadiah

Obadiah 1:1-21

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... the dispersed exiles of the Babylonian conquests of the 6th century BC. In the kingdom of God, the people of God would once again be whole. Further, no enemy would threaten Israel’s borders or claim its territory. Thus, the Israelites in the southern desert, which was called the Negev, would possess Edom, verse 19. Those in the Shephelah or foothills of Palestine would have the coastal regions from the Philistines. Ephraim and Samaria in the north would belong to Israel, as would Ammon and Gilead on the ...

1897. A Room with Locked Doors

John 20:19-23

Sermon

King Duncan

... well. (2) Well, that would make me a little nervous too. You may be perfectly at ease in the air, but all of us are afraid of something. It may be cancer, or if you are of a certain age, Alzheimer’s. It may be losing your job or being deserted by your spouse. It may concern the safety of your children or simply looking silly in front of others. But all of us know what it is to be afraid. As humorist Dave Barry once put it, “All of us are born with a set of instinctive fears--of falling ...

1898. Timeout at Tiberias

John 21:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... it was surrounded by hills that were the perfect hiding place from which the French and Indian fighters could attack. To make it worse, many of Washington’s men got drunk. In nine short hours, with thirty dead, seventy wounded, and many more deserting, the battle was over. Defeated, Washington gave up his sword and signed an article of surrender. George Washington, the future “father of our country,” lost his first battle, his first fort, and his first command in one fell swoop. As he limped back ...

1899. Jesus' First Disciples

John 1:35-42, John 1:43-51

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... is possible that the story has a symbolic side to it. If Nathanael is a true Israelite representing the “Israel” to whom Jesus must be revealed (cf. 1:31), then the saying recalls Hosea 9:10. “When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the desert; when I saw your fathers, it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree.” The point is perhaps that Jesus finds the new Israel in the same way that God his Father found the old. Jesus spoke elsewhere of the delight of uncovering an unexpected ...

1900. Jesus Changes Water to Wine

John 2:1-11

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... 29 to 2:11. Verse 12 represents a momentary pause, a brief respite in the action before Jesus’ first confrontation with Jerusalem and the temple. Other such pauses take place in Bethany, east of the Jordan (10:40–42), and in a town called Ephraim, near the desert (11:54). Jesus has said to his mother, My time has not yet come (v. 4), and now, it appears, they are simply waiting. Additional Notes 2:4 Why do you involve me? lit., “what to me and to you?” A slightly more literal translation suitable to ...

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